Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,044 CRASHES IN
VERMONT, VT
AUGUST 2019

All metrics benchmarked againstAugust 2018

In August 2019, Vermont recorded 1,044 total traffic crashes, representing a 29.2% increase from the 808 crashes in August 2018. During this same period, the number of fatalities rose from 5 to 7. A key year-over-year shift was the significant increase in the total volume of crashes and a change in the time of day when crashes were most likely to occur.

1,044

29.2%was 808

Total Crash Events

7

40.0%was 5

Fatal Crashes

189

6.8%was 177

Injury Crashes

7

40.0%was 5

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Fatal Crashes" and "Injury Crashes" count crash events — this source publishes crash-level counts only, not individual persons. 272 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for August indicates a rising trend in traffic incidents. Total crashes increased by 29.2%, from 808 in August 2018 to 1,044 in August 2019. This was accompanied by a 6.8% rise in injuries (from 177 to 189) and a 40% increase in fatalities (from 5 to 7).

When Crashes Happen

Temporal patterns shifted between the two periods. While Friday remained the day with the most crashes in both August 2018 (149 crashes) and August 2019 (222 crashes), the peak hour for collisions moved from the 12 p.m. hour in 2018 to the 4 p.m. hour in 2019. The afternoon commute period in 2019 saw a more concentrated spike in crashes compared to the prior year.

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The number of fatal crashes increased from 5 in August 2018 to 7 in August 2019, with the fatal crash rate increasing slightly from 0.6% to 0.7% of all crashes. While the absolute number of injury-involved crashes rose from 177 to 189, their proportion relative to all crashes decreased, falling from 21.9% of the total in 2018 to 18.1% in 2019.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.7%
40.0%prior 5
Injury189minor injury crashes18.1%
6.8%prior 177
No Injury576no injury crashes55.2%
-8.0%prior 626

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Severity derived from reported fatal/injury indicators (no KABCO A/B/C codes)

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Road & Environmental Conditions

The most significant change in crash conditions involved lighting. The proportion of crashes occurring in the dark grew from 15.6% of all incidents in August 2018 to 22.0% in August 2019, with the absolute count rising from 126 to 230. For crashes with recorded road surface data, the distribution between dry and wet conditions remained stable, with wet roads accounting for approximately 9% of these incidents in both years.

Weather

Clear480 (83.0%)
2.1%prior 470
Cloudy58 (10.0%)
-41.4%prior 99
Rain40 (6.9%)
-25.9%prior 54

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight803 (77.7%)
19.7%prior 671
Dark230 (22.3%)
82.5%prior 126

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Lighting condition field

Road Surface

Dry521 (89.4%)
-7.0%prior 560
Wet50 (8.6%)
-12.3%prior 57
Sand, mud, dirt, oil, gravel6 (1.0%)
Water (standing / moving)4 (0.7%)
Other - Explain in Narrative2 (0.3%)

Source: Vermont Crash Data · Arcgis Open Data · 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31 · Road surface condition field

Data Sources & Methodology

Primary Data Source

All crash data in this report is sourced from Vermont Crash Data, accessed programmatically via the Arcgis Open Data API (SODA). This dataset contains official police-reported motor vehicle traffic crash records maintained by the reporting jurisdiction's law enforcement agency. Records are published to the open data portal by the municipality and are subject to the portal's terms of use.

Data Retrieval

  • Access method: Arcgis Open Data API (SoQL queries)
  • Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
  • Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
  • Date filter applied: 2019-08-01 through 2019-08-31
  • Report generated: July 5, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2019-08-01 through 2019-08-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: vermont, VT
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,044

Analytical Methodology

  • Severity classification: Uses the KABCO injury scale (K=Fatal, A=Incapacitating injury, B=Non-incapacitating injury, C=Possible injury, O=No injury/property damage only), the standard classification in U.S. Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). Severity is assigned per crash event based on the most severe injury in that crash. A single fatal crash (K) may involve multiple fatalities; therefore the "Persons Killed" count in the headline KPIs may differ from the "Fatal" crash count in the severity breakdown.
  • Contributing factors: Reflect the officer-determined primary contributory cause recorded at the time of the crash report. These are preliminary determinations and may not reflect final investigation findings.
  • Hit-and-run classification: Based on the hit-and-run indicator field in the official crash report, as determined by the responding officer at the scene.
  • Temporal analysis: Day-of-week and hour-of-day distributions are computed from the crash date/time timestamp in each record.
  • Demographics: Age and sex distributions are drawn from person-level records linked to each crash event. A single crash may involve multiple persons.
  • Vehicle data: Make information is drawn from vehicle unit records linked to each crash event.
  • AI commentary: Narrative sections are generated by Google Gemini (large language model) based on the structured data. Commentary is descriptive, not predictive, and should not be interpreted as expert opinion.

Limitations & Disclaimers

  • Only crashes reported to and documented by law enforcement are included. Minor incidents, unreported crashes, and near-misses are not captured in this dataset.
  • Data reflects conditions at the time of the initial police report and may be subject to subsequent corrections, reclassifications, or supplements by the reporting agency.
  • Open data portal records may experience a publication lag - recently occurring crashes may not yet appear in the dataset at the time of report generation.
  • AI-generated commentary is produced by a large language model and is intended to highlight patterns in the data. It does not constitute legal, medical, or professional analysis.
  • Percentages are calculated from reported data and are subject to rounding.

Non-Affiliation Disclosure

This report is produced independently by ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with any law enforcement agency, municipal government, state department of transportation, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data is sourced from publicly available government open data portals.

Data License

The underlying crash data is provided under the municipality's Open Data Terms of Use and is made available to the public for unrestricted use. This analysis and report is © 2026 Injuria.ai and may be cited with attribution using the suggested citation below.

Corrections & Feedback

If you believe any data in this report is inaccurate or have questions about our methodology, please contact: data@injuria.ai. We are committed to accuracy and will issue corrections promptly.

Suggested Citation

ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). "vermont, VT Crash Intelligence Report: August 2019." Published July 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2019-08-01 to 2019-08-31. Data source: Vermont Crash Data, Arcgis Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/vermont/statewide/august-2019-report

About the Publisher

ThatCarHitMe.com is a crash data intelligence platform developed by Injuria.ai, a legal technology company specializing in traffic safety analytics. We aggregate and analyze publicly available government crash data to produce structured intelligence reports for communities, researchers, journalists, and legal professionals. Our reports combine programmatic data retrieval from official open data portals with AI-assisted narrative analysis.

Questions about this report's data or methodology: data@injuria.ai

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Vermont (Statewide) Crash Report — August 2019 | ThatCarHitMe.com